In 2010, Sen. John McNasty McCain, Gov. Janet Finger Wagging Brewer and many other Teapublican politicians vilified immigrants in order to be elected. The only things that have changed for 2012 are the candidates and the scare tactic. Since the Supreme Court gutted SB 1070, the focus has turned to Fast and Furious.
Fast and Furious, of course, is the name of the ATF program designed to stop the flow of guns into Mexico. In case you dont know, its illegal for anyone in Mexico outside of the military or police to own a gun. So the drug cartels have made Arizona their personal gun store. Arizonas gun laws are so lax that anyone over 18 can buy as many guns as they can afford. All they have to do is pass a quick background check. And, if they want to avoid the background check, they can go to any of the states hundreds of gun shows and buy guns with no questions asked.
Is this a great state or what?
As a result of this lunacy, Mexican cartels have shipped drugs into the US in exchange for cash and guns. This arrangement has been so successful, Mexico claims the resulting gun violence has resulted in the deaths of 47,000 Mexicans since 2006! And thats despite the fact that ATF has seized more than 68,000 guns over the same period.
How do you think Americans would react to the deaths of 47,000 of our citizens as the result of lax Mexican laws? Thats more than double the number of deaths from 9/11 every year for 6 years!
But Teapublicans seem to not care about those deaths. Instead, they have their teabags in knots over the death of a US Border Agent who was shot with a gun that was being tracked by the ATF. Obviously, any such death is horrible. But it seems our Teapublicans also view it as an opportunity. So based on the flimsiest of evidence, they have set about politicizing the ATF and the Department of Justice. They have used it to attack Attorney General Eric Holder and President Obama.
Now Katherine Eban has exposed the truth about Fast and Furious in an investigative report for Fortune magazine. In short, the article places the blame for the failed operation on a bureaucratic Assistant US Attorney and Arizonas insane gun laws. It also appears that the so-called whistle-blower was a recalcitrant and incompetent subordinate with a grudge against the ATF Division leader.
As for gun-walking and a supposed cover-up? It appears those were merely the figments of Teapublican imaginations repeated by a lazy and biased media. The entire controversy could have been avoided if either the press or the Congressional Oversight Committee had been more focused on finding the truth than scoring ratings or political points.